In What Ways Could The Emmys Have Been Better?

If this year’s Emmys were to be described in two words, they would be: soap opera. There was drama for long hours, there was laughter, romance, and proposals, and to top all of this there was one thing common to all opera: disappointment. They Emmys fell short on surprises, so they fired back through melancholic guns and disillusioning award bombs. The stuffy, staid old awards show is undergoing an existential crisis—ratings are down in recent years for all of the big ones; the Twitterati is bored with the antiquated format—and, sadly, this year’s Emmys didn’t do much to shake up the scene.

Get Better Hosts

To begin with, the Emmy hosts fell royally low on energy. Michael Che and Colin Jost just reminded that Emmys would do better with some sort of gender mix. Additionally, feminist movements are taking a momentum in contemporary time; so having two male hosts felt just as relevant as Trevor Noah’s political discourse. In their opening monologue, the hosts unapologetically took satirical takes on the #MeToo movements. What else could have been expected from people supporting public masturbators and cracking transphobic jokes? There was this conventional Josh/Che weekend update syndrome and we kept on yawning, eventually turning off TV midway.

Practically anyone could have done better than them, trust me even Trevor Noah could have worked. Tiffany Haddish, RuPaul, Billy Eichner could have been smart choices to host this year’s Emmys. I just hope the Academy reads this space and keeps in mind the names for upcoming shows.

Make Things A Bit More Diverse

There was a catastrophic Marvelous Mrs. Maisel sweep. Capitalism rules! No wonder they creators chose to franchise aristocracy, after all, it is what that sells. Now it is not like it did not deserve to win. But yes, it did not deserve all of its eight awards. Alex Borstein took home the prize that was rightfully Metcalf. And, I don’t even know how is Amy Sherman even carrying the several awards she has received. I understand that for Amazon Maisel galore in award recipients was necessary. But, literally giving two awards per person that was just unfair. Sherman was just as deserving as Glover. She had an obvious edge in direction, but Glover deserved an Emmy for Comedy writing. For a show that boasts ‘diversity’, giving 8 awards to a single series is just not the thing.

Actually Honor People From the Past

Racism is a real thing. And the way Emmy tries to solve it isn’t the way we can solve it. The Emmys tributed Kadeem Hardison (the immortal Dwayne Wayne on A Different World), Jaleel White (aka Steve Urkel), and Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons’ housekeeper, Florence Johnston). As the Emmys never included them in the nomination or their winner lists for their color. A noble move indeed, but if Betty White can get a standing ovation after 8 Emmys and 24 nominations, we are sure the Betty, not Whites could get a fair token of appreciation too.

Rashad Robinson in fact, noted on Twitter: “They could do this ‘Reparations Emmy’ stuff, or—hear me out—they could just give black people some actual Emmys?”

It’s not that the Emmys are the place to go all fire and brimstone on the frightening state of Hollywood in the wake of several sexual harassment offenses and the general deteriorating condition of American politics, but it’s hard not to wish they would have at least tried.